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Summary: A classic
Review: The thesis of this book has been so well accepted that it's hard to believe that it was once controversial. Dawkins is one of the leaders of the Darwinian school of evolution, and this book is one reason for his leadership. This is one of those rarities: a Must Read that is enjoyable.
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Summary: Dawkins + Complexity Theory = Enlightened Humans
Review: If I was cursed with banishment, I would take two books with me: Dawkin's "Selfish Gene" and Waldrop's "Complexity : The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos".Dawkin's book offers an eloquent, bulletproof, and easy to understand gestalt of biology on Earth. His arguments are incredible simple, logical and indisputable. The sense of truth, of REAL truth, you get while reading this book will truly raise your awareness to another level. Combine the well-researched and excellent anecdotes with the Complexity paradigm, and you will truly have the tools to understand the cosmic questions that tortures some of us. If you are questing for the answers to the "big" questions, these two books will answer them for you. If this is your first foray into biology or game theory, I suggest you start with a little more of the basics - it will make reading this book an even more rewarding experience.
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Summary: Why the dichotomy?
Review: Like most of the reviewers here, I can't say enough about "The Selfish Gene" and how enthusiastically I'd recommend it to everyone. All the negative reviews seem to be either dissections of Dawkin's decades-old science (big surprise that '70s biology has been improved upon), or the rather expected knee-jerk religious condemnation. With regards to the evolution/creation debate, I honestly can't understand the dichotomy here. Reading this book (three times) didn't destroy my faith in God - quite the reverse. Studying auto mechanics does not lessen your appreciation for the automobile, but rather instills in you a sense of awe at the complexity and synergy of the machine. The fact that a Creator has provided us with a universe governed by laws and containing the materials whereby progressively advanced "gene colonies" inevitably evolve and lumber out of the ooze is awe-inspiring! Do you have to believe in a God that has programmed us all completely with goodness and The Devil put in charge of the apple distribution? Personally, I think it preposterous that God dropped such flawed creatures as humans on this planet as a finished product. Finished product? Take a look at the design of the ear's semi-circular canal for maintaining balance: it's terrible engineering! If we were made in God's image we would be perfect or very nearly; since we're not we must be a work in progress. Dawkins wrote a great book; maybe not a perfect one, but then nobody's perfect.
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Summary: Buy this book.
Review: This is an amazing book. Brilliantly written and brilliantly thought out. Contrary to the people who have reviewed this before me and see the book as doom laden for humans, I dont think it leaves one with a terrible view of mankind at all. This book simply explains the way life is, and how it got there. Dawkins doesnt say anywhere that "humans are naturally selfish and there is nothing you can do about", nor does he imply it(for the pedants out there). And he also doesnt say that that genes have a conscience and are knowingly selfish. Ignore the hype that has surrounded the title and read about life in all its marvellous glory!
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Summary: Read the book, not just the title.
Review: This is a marvelous piece of work, provocative, witty, and above all extremely well-written - well enough that non-biologists can understand it if they are willing to think. Do not commit the very common fallacy to read nothing but the title - even usually well-informed reviewers who think they are blasting the book often show they do not even know what they are talking about.
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Summary: Good Science
Review: Richard Dawkins provides us with a true story of our history, as one of the millions of species on this planet blindly designed to maximize the survival of our genes. Although most people are aware of the basic concepts of Darwinian evolution, this book provides a fresh perspective and sends the message home. Dawkins also explains why animals sometimes behave in ways (such as sacrificing self) that are seemingly inconsistent with the evolutionary theory. However, readers should be cautious as not to mis-interpret or over-interpret what Dawkins says. Nowhere does he say that genes or humans are consciously selfish nor that our sole purpose in life is to pass on our genes. He does show us, however, what being a good scientist is all about.
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Summary: Extremely well written
Review: This is a science book, although you wouldn't know it while reading it. Dawkins has a gift for explaining the non-obvious in an easy to understand and entertaining way. His analogies are clear, and he reminds the reader they are analogies, without being repetitious. This book explains how genes that promote their reproduction tend to dominate the 'gene pool', and how this may lead to the analogy of 'selfishness'. Although you may not believe it from some bad reviews on this site, there are some good criticism of this books material. Whether or not you believe everything in this book, it is extremely well written and worth the read. Highly recommended.
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Summary: Dawkins Mythology
Review: This work, by biology reader Richard Dawkins is a classic work. Dawkins argues that everything we would properly call humanity is simply an illusion hoisted upon us by our genes to motivate us to reproduce. Dawkins presents his position (derived largely from his prior commitment to strict atheism, rather than any compelling experimental evidence from biology) that we can be reduced to a 'gene replication machine': love, compassion, empathy, and all things human, are but genetically based illusions. Of course it amazes me that Dawkins fails to undestand that if all human knownledge and experience is genetic deception, then of course, so is that belief itself; Dawkins masterwork of materialistic philosophy pretending to be science, refutes itself yet again! This work by Dawkins is therefore a fictional masterpiece! I recommend it highly (reading fictions such as this are great entertainment).
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Summary: It changed my view on the links between genes and behavior
Review: As many readers mentionned it, this book contains a paradigm-shifting view on natural selection centered on the replication of individual genes.It also presents an open-minded view on the nature of genes that is very different from the one habitually popularized. Because of it, this book made me see for the first time with a favorable eye explanations linking together genes and behavior. In it, no gene is said to be the unique and direct cause of a behavior. It rather says that when all other factors stay the same, including environmental factors, changing a sole gene could alter a behavior in a given and precise way. That is a very different view. The book is easy and pleasant to read. Concepts usually drowned in lots of technical details are here simply put and clearly explained. It is a clever book. It uses a lot of logical and deductive thinking, accompanied with many experimentaly verifiable predictions. It also seems to me a somewhat speculative book because it suggests implicitly that all differences in observed animal behavior could be linked to specific genes, which is far from being proven. It is also a paradoxical book. On one side, it gives due credit to the mecanism of genes replication, and so clarifies many aspects of natural selection. On the other side, it deliberately uses, as a convenient shorten way of speaking, a language attributing some will to the genes, which tends to confuse the issue.
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Summary: Molecule mind - part 2
Review: It is not selfish for a gene to replicate. For the gene, that is simply a chemical reaction. In the same way, oil is not selfish because it rises to the top of water. To introduce a view of selfishness (or to say it operates to maximize position) in the oil, is to introduce an interpretation from our point of view that is false. Evolved animals will show numerous examples of genes doing their job, because they are the currency that evolution must work on. Those genes, like shares, that gain highest interest in nature's economy will be worth more in the future. They will be relatively more numerous in the next generation. But the value of each gene or share is determined by factors beyond their own control, such as the wisdom of the company and its knowledge of the economy. To interpret a cuckoo as selfish because it kicks out another species' nestling is wrong, because it was really just filling a niche position made available after 'water and oil' type interactions. Where Dawkins makes his mistake is to think that genes, after their various mutations, can do more than simply make themselves available to the dominant selecting pressure in nature, 'the wildness'. They can be efficient, they can find that they are acceptable to the environment, but they cannot have a concept or reaction to self preserve. The selfish behaviour biologists describe today are misinterpretations of 'no other choice' situations governed in nature by what the environment will allow. Hopefully, the human genome project will finally dispel the gene selfishness or gene intention idea described in this book, when the supposed DNA that should be so dedicated cannot be found. It is important to get the terminology right, because after this book, there are people out there who think human nature is fundamentally selfish, which it is not. There are other reasons for the selfishness seen today.
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